Help making viable non-magic medic

[Rabbitfox]

Our group is starting a new campaign soon (at Lvl 1) and are in the process of making characters. Our group (and DM) is used to have a dedicated healer in the group, so I wanted to give it a try this time around.

I know the healing roll is normally filled by Clerics, Druids or Bards using Magic, but I wanted the healer to be less "generic" by trying to have a non-magic healer. The Healer feat seems to be the only way to accomplish this. Looking around the consensus seems to be that Rogue with Thief Archetype is a good starting point for this. Cunning Action allows to quickly move around the battlefield and fast hands allows the use of the Healer's Kit as a bonus action.

At low levels this build seems good, but what about at higher levels? The DM said the campaign will go to Lvl 13. The Healer perk doesn't scale too much (1 heal per character per short rest for 1d6+4+player lvl) and extra rogue levels obviously don't help with healing. I can use the Hermit Background to get proficiency with Herbalism Kit to make cheaper potions but that only goes so far (and requires a ton of in-game time). Are there any other options for non-magic healing out there? Or do I have to resort to multi-classing as a cleric/druid/bard after level 3 to stay viable as a healer?

Thanks for any suggestion/feedback, I appreciate it!

[Asmotherion]

Our group is starting a new campaign soon (at Lvl 1) and are in the process of making characters. Our group (and DM) is used to have a dedicated healer in the group, so I wanted to give it a try this time around.

I know the healing roll is normally filled by Clerics, Druids or Bards using Magic, but I wanted the healer to be less "generic" by trying to have a non-magic healer. The Healer feat seems to be the only way to accomplish this. Looking around the consensus seems to be that Rogue with Thief Archetype is a good starting point for this. Cunning Action allows to quickly move around the battlefield and fast hands allows the use of the Healer's Kit as a bonus action.

At low levels this build seems good, but what about at higher levels? The DM said the campaign will go to Lvl 13. The Healer perk doesn't scale too much (1 heal per character per short rest for 1d6+4+player lvl) and extra rogue levels obviously don't help with healing. I can use the Hermit Background to get proficiency with Herbalism Kit to make cheaper potions but that only goes so far (and requires a ton of in-game time). Are there any other options for non-magic healing out there? Or do I have to resort to multi-classing as a cleric/druid/bard after level 3 to stay viable as a healer?

Thanks for any suggestion/feedback, I appreciate it!

Viable Healer and non-magical are not working well in D&D unless your DM is willing to Homebrew something for you. Otherwise, you need to dedicate at least some spellcasting into it.

A good non-dedicated healer is the Life-Cleric 1/Druid, if what you want is to avoid being a dedicated healer. This way you have access to Goodberry, which is going to heal more per each berry, (at your DM's discretion, you might have to use each berry on an other character though, for it to work).

Otherwise, ask your dm if he's willing to let the healer kit scale with level, (something like healing up to your proficiency bonus+your wisdom modifier seems appropriate in HP) instead of 1 HP with each use... I think that's the extend you can hope for with a non-caster healer, and it's already a lot...

[Cap'm Bubbles]

Current health in relation to maximum health has no effect in this edition. A character with 1 hitpoint left can perform the same amount of damage or actions as if the character had 100 or 200 hitpoints.

A viable healer is a character that can either:
1) keep allies from dying (i.e. death ward, revivify), or
2) awaken allies who have fallen unconscious.

The Thief setup with Healer accomplishes this just fine, as you can use Healer as both an action and a bonus action with the archetype feature to bring back two unconscious allies, with enough mobility to reach them without fear of being attacked.

The Mobile feat can help you even more if you find that cunning action is insufficient for what your DM throws at you.
Charismatic Leader allows you to give temporary hitpoints to your allies before every non-ambush fight, which can also amount to a fair bit of HP.

Until the caster characters can heal a player fro zero to full (which is much closer to level 13 than level 1), your rogue build will be par for the course. And by the time your party reaches those levels, it's their own fault if they haven't prepared some contingency for more healing than what a rogue can provide AND can't handle it.

[SharkForce]

alternately, your group will simply have to accept the fact that doing dumb stuff has a cost now.

it isn't the clerics job to keep everyone at full health. it is each player's job, regardless of class, to not do stupid things that require constant babysitting. you heal to full every day, and you can spend hit dice on your short rest to get more. the cleric's (or bard's, or druid's) spell slots are not anyone else's HP stockpile in diguise.

now, you certainly *can* play that way. but then that just plain sucks for the person who gets stuck being essentially a full caster with no spell slots. if you insist on doing that, i recommend having an NPC. don't bother giving them a name or a personality, because let's face it, you're not really going to be treating them as a person, you're going to be treating them as a walking hit point dispenser, and anyone with an actual personality isn't going to put up with that kind of crap forever, nor should they be expected to.

[Pex]

Playing a 7th level cleric since level 1. I had cast a healing spell only once, in the first session. Literally I had not cast a healing spell since. Potions and short rest HD spending help, but the majority of healing came from Healer feat. It heals more than a healing spell. Anyone can take it. For added comfort also take Inspiring Leader feat to give everyone a significant amount of temporary hit points. Having a high Charisma for it is not a must have but is advisable.

[Aett_Thorn]

Does your group allow for Unearthed Arcana? Also, would giving someone a healing potion count as too 'magical' to you?

Because an Alchemist Artificer might work for you. You mainly throw out various damaging potions, you have a mechanical pet, and you can give people healing potions as you need to.

[Sariel Vailo]

Its the midle finger of vecna's spokeswoman your hostess with the mostess the drow of wow sariel and i have a link for you.otherwise try pdk but everyone here will say blah.
Heres the link (http://mfov.magehandpress.com/2017/04/corpsman.html?m=1)

[sithlordnergal]

So, my group actually did have a 100% viable non-magical medic. In fact, the character in question had no casting what so ever, and was our only real healer besides the paladin. And as the paladin, I didn't waste my time with Cure Wounds, I just used my healing touch ability. Since you are just as effective at 1 hp as you are at full, it doesn't completely matter how much someone heals you for. Their build was:

Tabaxi Monk/Rogue with the Healing feat, Thief Subclass, and a crap ton of Healing potions and several Healer Kits. If a person lost too much health, they'd run up and use their Healing feat, and if you fell unconcious he used a health potion or a healer's kit to get you back up.

Don't listen to any of the people who claim you have to be a spell caster to be a healer. You just need to have mobility and the Healer feat.

[Slipperychicken]

It depends on how long your adventuring days are. For just 3 fights between long rests, you probably don't even need a healer; you can just blitz through. Somewhere around 4-6 it really wears down your hit points, but with luck and a well-timed short rest you could probably pull through. At the full 6-8 I'd strongly advise some way to reliably recover hp.

Also, I really like the healer feat. I take it on all my life clerics. That and preserve life channel divinity will keep a lot of pressure off your spell slots and consumables.

For guidance on non-magical healing houserules, I heard that the third-party book 'Adventures in Middle Earth' has some stuff for that.

now, you certainly *can* play that way. but then that just plain sucks for the person who gets stuck being essentially a full caster with no spell slots. if you insist on doing that, i recommend having an NPC. don't bother giving them a name or a personality, because let's face it, you're not really going to be treating them as a person, you're going to be treating them as a walking hit point dispenser, and anyone with an actual personality isn't going to put up with that kind of crap forever, nor should they be expected to.

Maybe my group is just more respectful and appreciative than most, but I've enjoyed playing a healer.

[Rabbitfox]

Thanks for your guys thoughts/suggestions. In regards what you guys said

Current health in relation to maximum health has no effect in this edition. A character with 1 hitpoint left can perform the same amount of damage or actions as if the character had 100 or 200 hitpoints.

A viable healer is a character that can either:
1) keep allies from dying (i.e. death ward, revivify), or
2) awaken allies who have fallen unconscious.

The Thief setup with Healer accomplishes this just fine, as you can use Healer as both an action and a bonus action with the archetype feature to bring back two unconscious allies, with enough mobility to reach them without fear of being attacked.

That's a good point. In combat it is probably enough to keep everyone alive. The Feat only limits the "healing action", not the number of times a character can be revived. About the Fast Hand feature, I could also use it revive one character with my bonus action with 1HP and then use my Action to heal them for 1d6+4+player lvl, right?

alternately, your group will simply have to accept the fact that doing dumb stuff has a cost now.

Playing a 7th level cleric since level 1. I had cast a healing spell only once, in the first session. Literally I had not cast a healing spell since.

From what I have experienced with this group....they are gonna need healing. To be fair the DM has been making combat pretty deadly. Maybe the DM/group would adjust their play style if there wasn't a dedicated healer anymore.

It depends on how long your adventuring days are. For just 3 fights between long rests, you probably don't even need a healer; you can just blitz through. Somewhere around 4-6 it really wears down your hit points, but with luck and a well-timed short rest you could probably pull through. At the full 6-8 I'd strongly advise some way to reliably recover hp.

As said the DM has been making combat pretty deadly. We tend to have 4-7 encounters between long rests, so our current "healer" has to burn up quite a few spells to keep us going later on in the day. Again, if the party didn't have the one guy that heals everybody then he might structure combat/rests differently.

A good non-dedicated healer is the Life-Cleric 1/Druid, if what you want is to avoid being a dedicated healer.

it isn't the clerics job to keep everyone at full health. it is each player's job, regardless of class, to not do stupid things that require constant babysitting. you heal to full every day, and you can spend hit dice on your short rest to get more. the cleric's (or bard's, or druid's) spell slots are not anyone else's HP stockpile in diguise.

I actually wouldn't even mind being just the healer guy, as long as the character is interesting to play. You can probably do some interesting role-playing shenanigans with a pure healer concept. If the party expects me to do nothing but heal them, I can play a medic/doctor extremely devout to his vows so that he will try to heal everyone (even try to stabilize the enemies). Our current healer really likes roleplaying his character, but you are right he does get annoyed sometimes when people are too reckless with their HP and he has to burn his spells for healing.

Does your group allow for Unearthed Arcana? Also, would giving someone a healing potion count as too 'magical' to you?

Because an Alchemist Artificer might work for you. You mainly throw out various damaging potions, you have a mechanical pet, and you can give people healing potions as you need to.

Our group never played with Unearth Arcana, so I'd have to check with the DM. I never looked at the Alchemist Artificer before but it looks like a lot of fun :). Thanks for suggesting it.

Its the midle finger of vecna's spokeswoman your hostess with the mostess the drow of wow sariel and i have a link for you.otherwise try pdk but everyone here will say blah.

That's a cool class that would work well, but I don't think our DM really likes playing with Homebrew stuff.


Thanks again for all the suggestions. I think, I will try to go with a Variant Human Rogue/Thief with the Healer Feat. I can set my WIS to at least 13, I can pick up Cleric at Lvl 4 if the Healer Feat turns out to be insufficient. But based on the feedback, I might not need to.

[Ventruenox]

Taking the Gourmand feat from UA will go quite a long ways for a non magical medic build. The party recovers two additional hit dice per long rest by enjoying your cooking.

[Sariel Vailo]

Also look at purple dragon knight healee feat and inspiring leader i made she was ok

[Desteplo]

With healer feat whenever you stabilize one person with the kit they heal 1hp
-that's enough to at least whack a mole your way through the game.

[Slipperychicken]

With healer feat whenever you stabilize one person with the kit they heal 1hp
-that's enough to at least whack a mole your way through the game.

I kinda like how using the 1d6+4+HD benefit precludes using the 'stabilize to 1hp' benefit until the target finishes a short rest. It creates an interesting dynamic where you have to decide whether it's a good time for the full healing, or if you'll need to get them up again later during the fight.

[Desteplo]

I kinda like how using the 1d6+4+HD benefit precludes using the 'stabilize to 1hp' benefit until the target finishes a short rest. It creates an interesting dynamic where you have to decide whether it's a good time for the full healing, or if you'll need to get them up again later during the fight.

Oh for sure. It's a back up. Uses up all your resources too quickly. That's 10g a fight If it gets that bad
-as a medic though it works out. Herbalism for potions and healer feat for quick on the fly healing

[JackPhoenix]

Bard 2 has use even without healing magic, Song of Rest helps a bit during short rest HD healing.

[JellyPooga]

The notion of a non-magical healer running around the battlefield and getting his allies back from 0hp to 1hp just seems...odd, I guess. It doesn't sound like your typical healer/surgeon type and certainly not a nice guy; more like some douchebag sergeant yelling at his men to stop lying around complaining about their arm falling off, to get back on their feet and back into harms way.

[Contrast]

Don't listen to any of the people who claim you have to be a spell caster to be a healer. You just need to have mobility and the Healer feat and your DM to allow you to buy a tonne of healing potions.

Fixed that for you. I've always been inclined to make healing potions pretty readily available but I've certainly played in games where they're pretty limited/non-existent.

In fairness even with spell slots you're going to be getting a lot of healing from hit die as spell slots are a limited resource and there are only a couple of really efficient healing spells. You can get a lot of mileage out of one person picking up healer and one inspiring leader which lets you keep your spell slots for other more urgent things.

Mostly I'd discourage you from thinking of yourself as a 'dedicated healer'. Spend the minimum resources to be as good at healing as you wanna be because the best type of healing is the type you don't have to do because the enemy was incapacitated/dead.

[Quoxis]

I think i remember that chugging or administering a potion isn't the same as the use item action, meaning by RAW the fast hands of a thief are only ever useful for the medikit.

Other than that:
- temporary hp from the inspiring leader feat or a battle master's rally are an alternate form of healing - arguably even better as you can do your inspiring right after a long rest, stacking the hp onto the full health of your buddies (temp hp don't stack with each other though!). Maybe reflavor that stuff as medically treating them or something.
- depending on the intelligence of your opponents (or how much of a sadist strategist your DM is) they'll attack the healer first - get high AC, stay away from trouble and consider taking class features that boost your defense one way or another. As counter-intuitive as it sounds, a raging barbarian can still treat his wounded allies (if he still attacks or gets hit every now and then, to not drop the rage) while taking only half weapon damage, for example. A long death monk at lvl 11 can refuse to die for one ki point, but that's really really late for you.
- as others said: keeping your allies at full health isn't your main goal, that's what short rests and hit dice are for. Concentrate on "resurrecting" the recently dying and don't forget to let the enemies get a taste of your scalpel from time to time - offense is the best defense in most cases!

[Everstar]

If UA is allowed, the Medic feat could be useful to bump up the amount of healing the party does between fights.

[MagneticKitty]

Unearthed arcana way of tranquility monk
Healing hands is monk level x 10 healing pool
Aasimir has divine healing stuff.
Healing feat.
Vóila new healer.

Edit: there was also an unearthed arcana a long while back for spelless ranger that made them have healing salves as well

[Foxhound438]

healer is a good start, but I'd also throw on top of that inspiring leader, which nearly doubles the amount of "extra health" each of your allies can gain per short rest from you. Best part is that inspiring leader is proactive, so you can go into a fight with extra HP and not have to worry about the first hit everyone takes.

beyond that, it is kind of hard to pull off. You could go purple dragon knight fighter for the mass second wind feature, which does a bit of work, or you could go paladin for lay on hands (I don't know if that breaks the criteria of non-magic for you). The problem with all of this is that unfortunately it doesn't scale really well like having something with mass cure wounds or heal would. If someone on your team goes to 0 before the enemy team takes casualties, you're just about boned. It's not a huge deal, as it's unlikely to happen if you have more damage on your team due to the increase in damage focus, but it is a possibility.